Epic fantasy which stands alongside, I, CLAUDIUS and THE NAME OF THE ROSE Crispin the mosaicist, having finally achieved his journey to fabled Sarantium, wants nothing more than to confront the challenges of his art high on the scaffolding of destiny - but in Sarantium no man may easily withdraw from the turmoils of court and city, or forget that the presence of the half-world is always close by. From the east another voyager also comes on a journey of self-discovery. Rustem of Kerakek, the physician, learns that saving the life of Bassania's King of Kings is not enough to ensure a man's fortune. He must find his own balancing of family and ambition, healing and death, as he, too, is drawn into the deadly webs of Sarantium. This eagerly-awaited conclusion to the magnificent sequence begun with SAILING TO SARANTIUM finds a huge cast of characters from all walks of life caught up in rumours of war and perilous intrigue as all the threads of the tale come spectacularly together in a time shaped by violent upheaval - and the memory of fire in the streets.